


Steve Rogers: Ink Master?

by allyouneedissleep



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Ink Master (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU: Ink Master, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Tattoos, Artist Steve Rogers, Ink Master - Freeform, M/M, Meet-Cute, Tattoo Artist Steve Rogers, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 06:42:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20326789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyouneedissleep/pseuds/allyouneedissleep
Summary: Deciding that enough was enough, he put in his bid to be America’s next Ink Master. He figured his work spoke for itself, and if that wasn’t quite what they were looking for he wasn’t above using his pretty boy image to make it onto the show. Steve wasn’t even convinced he had what it took to be the next Ink Master, but he was willing to do anything to start to get recognition for his art and not his body.





	Steve Rogers: Ink Master?

Steve Rogers was sick of being known as the pretty boy in the tattoo industry. Most artists were eclectic in their style, tending to show off their own body’s artwork, and dressing in a manner that does so. Steve was known for wearing tight jeans, a tight shirt stretching across his built chest, and always having a smile on his face. Being a blonde haired, blue eyed, six foot tall buff dude also didn’t help separate him from the pretty boy image he was trying so hard to run away from. 

Of course, this didn’t mean that he was a stranger to his own body art. Steve wasn’t huge on body modification in terms of piercings, but he had his fair share of tattoos peeking out of his standard pretty boy getup. Around his tight t-shirt, his visible tattoos were: a black and white tattoo crawling up the left side of his neck, a peek at the bottom of a rounded circle on his right shoulder in blues, reds, and whites, and a sleeve along his left arm. His left arm was his most extensive work because it almost looked to be split into two different styles of tattooing. The top half appeared to be mimicking metal interlocking plates with a big red star on it, and the bottom was full of beautiful black and white flowers. None of this detracted from his easy going personality, and left him more intriguing to the general public.

Unfortunately, being the pretty boy in Brooklyn meant that more often than not he got booked to do tattoos for women trying to take him home; Steve never quite built up the courage to tell them they were barking up the wrong tree, as he was quite proud of being gay. Yet, work was work and Steve was willing to tattoo just about anyone to make ends meet (except bigots they can fuck off). He’s done more work in styles he has no interest in than not, simply because he so rarely finds a canvas looking for a similar idea to his own.

Deciding that enough was enough, he put in his bid to be America’s next Ink Master. He figured his work spoke for itself, and if that wasn’t quite what they were looking for he wasn’t above using his pretty boy image to make it onto the show. Steve wasn’t even convinced he had what it took to  _ be  _ the next Ink Master, but he was willing to do anything to start to get recognition for his art and not his body.

It still came as quite a shock to him, when Steve managed to make it to the final six on the show. So far, he got to tattoo a few different styles, some canvases had ideas he absolutely loved and some were, well definitely not good, but they felt just like doing his street shop work back in Brooklyn. Surprising himself, he even got a few tattoos of the day, placing him as a front runner of the season. Finally the judges announced the exact week he’d been waiting for; he couldn’t wait to show everyone just what he could do.

“This week we’re going to test thick lines, solid blocked in color, and not only a staple in American tattooing, but Oliver’s specialty,” Dave Navarro began while gesturing towards Oliver Peck. 

“That’s right folks, American Traditional,” Peck spoke around his signature toothpick. 

“This is a style that trips artists up every year but we expect you’ll be able to nail this out of the park. Don’t hold back and follow the fundamentals,” Chris Nuñez looked at each of the contestants. 

“Come on up for skull picks and we’ll bring in our canvases,” Dave waved them in.

Steve was stoked. He hadn’t told anyone yet just how much he favored American Traditional artwork and that he even had a few pieces adorning his chest himself. He knew he was going to be a target this week since no one had been able to pin down a weakness for him so far in the competition, but he was excited and ready to conquer the field. 

The canvases started explaining what they would like and where: a clipper ship on the calf, an anchor on the ankle, a lady face on the thigh, a rose and dagger on the forearm, a snake on the back, and a pinup of a male acrobat hanging upside down from a swing while shooting a bow and arrow on the ribs. 

Before skulls were even given out Steve just knew he was getting the pinup. They were known for being next to impossible, the guy wanted too much, and he wanted it on one of the hardest places to tattoo. They only had six hours! Was this guy insane? He couldn’t even see any visible tattoos on the guy. A tattoo virgin on top of that would just be the icing on the cake.

Sure enough, acrobat turned his skull upside down “Steve?” 

Steve raised his hand and smiled “yup that’s me”.

They quickly shook hands and the canvas introduced himself as Clint.

“Well Clint, I’m not gonna lie to you and say your tattoo sounds totally doable but there is definitely a story there and I’m interested in figuring it out.” A beautiful blush started to spread across Clint’s face and Steve realized that for the first time in a while he may be in danger of feeling sexual attraction for a client. Suddenly he knew he was going to pull out all the stops to make this his best tattoo yet.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Clint answered, “Yeah, so I was actually in the circus and had an act called The Amazing Hawkeye, where I shot my bow and arrow while doing all sorts of crazy trick shots. I was pretty good ya know? Never miss a shot,” Clint winked. “But I just want to symbolize that time in my life since it was a long time ago.”

Steve coughed a little, startling even himself with how dry his mouth became at the thought of Clint making his ‘never miss’ comment into an innuendo. Now he wasn’t known as being the most perceptive person, but he was pretty sure his canvas was flirting with him. Getting back on track, he decided to continue the conversation in a way that focused on the tattoo itself.

“Okay, we can work with that. I actually love American Traditional and the subject matter means something to you so I’ll definitely work with you to make it just right. But we've gotta talk about these ribs. Now, I’m not sure how many tattoos you actually have cause I can only see so much, but you’ve got none on your arms so I’m assuming you might be a tattoo virgin? We only have six hours and on a tattoo like this--” Steve began.

Clint cut Steve off, “Yeah I don’t actually want the ribs, I just figured that if I said that with my long winded answer I would be handed off to a great artist.”

Steve laughed, “That really could have backfired for you. They could have given you to the most annoying artist instead”.

“That was a risk I was willing to take,” Clint replied solemnly. 

“So what area do you really want done?” Steve asked.

“I’ve got some free space on my right shoulder here, where I think it would look quite nice. Also to answer your earlier question, I’ve got 3 tattoos already. One on my chest, ankle, and calf.”

“Alright, let me get this drawn up and we’ll see what you think.” After shaking hands one more time, he sent Clint off to the break room before he walked off to the table to sketch.

For the next six hours, Steve couldn’t get enough of Clint. The man told stories in such a smooth way that had him chuckling under his breath more than he could count. For the first time in this competition, Steve felt truly at home. 

There was something about Clint that drew him in. The man was all broad shoulders, big toned biceps and forearms, and obviously fit throughout his core and legs. He had dirty blonde hair and baby blue eyes that made Steve feel like he was swimming in tiny little pools. Clint had on a purple shirt, dark wash jeans, and purple shoes; a color that shouldn’t just  _ work  _ for Steve, but it really, really did. He was so mesmerizing that if it hadn’t been for him pointing out his hearing aids, Steve never would have even noticed that the man had issues with his ears. 

He was just starting to tell the story of why his nickname was Captain America when Oliver Peck wandered over to take a look at his tattoo.

Oliver let out a low whistle “Rogers, you’ve been holding out on us.”

“Uh, sorry sir. American Traditional is sort of my passion,” Steve replied politely.

“I see that. Keep it up,” Oliver patted his shoulder before walking back to Chris. 

“We really are gonna win tattoo of the day aren’t we? Usually Oliver has way more to say on American Traditional day,” Clint spoke up after a few minutes.

“Fan of the show then?” Steve questioned.

“Oh definitely, I’m not an artist at all but I definitely act like I know more than the people on the show when I’m casually watching,” Clint joked with Steve.

“Sounds about right,” Steve said.

“Okay so continue telling me this Captain America story.”

Steve laughed, “Alright. So basically I was in the army and worked my way up to the rank of Captain,” Steve paused to focus on shading for a moment. Clint could barely pull his eyes from the way Steve held his tongue between his teeth while he focused. 

Trying to distract himself from popping an awkward boner for his tattoo artist, Clint spoke up, “Well, that certainly explains the Captain aspect. What about the America part of the name?” 

“Oh, sorry. Got sucked into the tattoo there,” Steve apologized. Clint quickly waved him off. “There we were in Afghanistan, having some downtime, which was typically rare so we decided to have a couple beers and joke around with one another. I don’t exactly remember the details of what happened because I was already a few drinks deep but I bent over to grab something and one of the guys yells out ‘dat ass tho’ and somehow my ass became ‘America’s ass’. For Christmas one of the guys even got his wife to send him a pair of American flag briefs to give me as a gift,” Steve laughed while telling the story. 

“And after that they just started calling me Captain America instead of Captain Rogers. It’s actually why I got this shield tattooed on my right shoulder. Here, lemme show ya,” Steve pulled the sleeve of his t-shirt up to show his red, white, and blue circle tattoo. The tattoo made a lot more sense when Clint could see it head on, especially with the white star in the middle. 

“Oh my god, that’s hilarious. America’s ass. Let’s see it then,” Clint asked while subtly wiping at his eyes. After getting to a good place in the tattoo, Steve stood up while laughing and gave a quick little spin with his arms out. In a voice barely above a whisper, Clint continued, “Damn that  _ is  _ America’s ass.”

Steve snorted before saying, “If I have America’s ass, you definitely have America’s biceps.”

“What these bad boys?” Clint gave a quick flex of his own. Instead of making the moment awkward, he decided to ask the question that had been eating at him since he first saw the man, “can you tell me about the tattoos on your left arm? I understand that might be personal so if it is, you don’t have to tell me.”

“Ah. Yeah it’s a little hard to miss the sleeve, no?” Steve began. “I was really lucky in the war. My best friend from home and I were in the same unit. He was actually my Sargent. Anyways, he lost his left arm and was really self conscious when we came back. So I got his metal plating done on my own arm and the same red star he asked them to put on his bionic prosthetic. The flowers on the bottom are for my mom. Before she passed, she was really into gardening and tried so hard to use it as a bonding tool between us, but I would rather just draw the flowers instead of water them.” 

“That’s beautiful Steve, really. I’m sorry for prying,” Clint smiled.

“Nah, I like talking about it honestly,” Steve smiled. “Damn, I could really use a cigarette now.”

They decided to take a smoke and bathroom break. Steve continued to tattoo in quiet for a while before Dave gave a ten minute warning. Steve had just been wiping up the tattoo and getting ready to reveal it to Clint when suddenly the man got really shy. 

“Uh Steve, I just want to thank you for this and maybe after the show if you’re ever in Brooklyn, I can take you out for a cup of coffee?” 

“Wait, you live in Brooklyn?” Steve’s face whipped up to look at Clint.

“Yeah, you know you have to live near NYC to be a canvas on the show.” 

“I’m an artist in Brooklyn. Lived there my whole life,” Steve said.

“Oh. Um. Cool.” Clint started to shake his head sadly. As if realizing what he was doing, he quickly put a smile on his face “I mean, no pressure or anything I’m sure you already have a girlfriend. Either way this tattoo is awesome and I love it so thank you.”

“No, um, I don’t have a girlfriend. Was never really interested in that,” Steve awkwardly replied, “and I would love to get coffee with you”.

When it came around to judging the tattoos, they had nothing but good things to say about the little acrobat who appeared to be swinging upside down while shooting a bow and arrow. Underneath the acrobat, Steve had added a banner saying “The Amazing Hawkeye”. 

It was the most rewarding Tattoo of the Day Steve had won all season. No matter what the outcome was, Ink Master or not, he already had a coffee date waiting for him back home in Brooklyn. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic posted on AO3 and my first in the MCU so please be nice. Also there isn't enough Amerihawk out there so like someone had to write one. Thanks for reading!


End file.
